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Contents: Volume 2Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A & B


 
FIFTH
SUNDAY
of
LENT
(A & B)

 

March 17, 2024

1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Dennis Keller
3. -- John Boll OP
4. --
5. --(Your reflection can be here!)

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1.
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Lent 5 A 2024

This Sunday's Gospel is such a rich and remarkable story! It is a long reading, but one that invites more than one quick read. It is a story that tells us a lot about the mystery of Jesus being fully human and fully divine, plus gives us wonder about several things including a glimpse into our own future.

The humanity of Jesus is well-documented throughout the New Testament but how it "fits with" but is also distinct from Jesus's divinity is still unclear to us. Jesus was told Lazarus was ill, but later said "Lazarus has died". He then seemed not to know that Lazarus was already in the tomb four days when he arrived in Bethany about two days later. Bethany was just two miles from Jerusalem. Those details can side-track us if we stop there.

We also know Jesus wept... and what a comforting two words! He wept for Lazarus whom he loved. Do you wonder if perhaps Jesus also wept because Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead pre-figured that Jesus was about to die a horrible death and then be resurrected also? Do you wonder what Lazarus's life was like once he was "let go"!?

The raising of Lazarus is a sign that we, too, shall be raised from the dead. Contemplating our resurrection is rock-solid joy amidst the turmoil and quicksand of everyday life and the horrors we read/hear about in our world daily. An incredible painting that shows such joy and hope is by Paul Oman, called "The Raising of Lazarus". Yes, we surely need hope! Combining such powerful Gospel stories with such beautiful imagery is, in my opinion, a profound way to reverence the sadness of Good Friday but also rejoice that it is indeed made Good, by the graces we receive. So, too, will we be able to view the trials we have here on earth and our future in the Lord...one day.

Blessings,
Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP
Southern Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one

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2.
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Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 17 2024

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Responsorial Psalm 51; Hebrews 5:7-9;
Gospel Acclamation John 12:26; John 12:20-33

Jeremiah is our first reading. He was very young when called to prophesize to Judah. It seems he was in service at the Temple. He was something of a firebrand, always stirring the pot, irritating the powers that be. When the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem and it was apparent Jerusalem would fall, he took the Arc of the Covenant with the stone tablets into the mountains and sealed it in a cave. It has remained there even now, nearly three thousand years later – all this despite the efforts of Indiana Jones. Jeremiah in this Sunday’s reading speaks of God’s disappointment at the failure of the Hebrew people – first the northern kingdom, and then ultimately the southern kingdom of Judah. They had been blessed with the Law indicating how persons and tribes could live a happy, successful and secure life. The law had not entered into their hearts. It remained a burden to them instead of a way of living they loved. When the heart leads – when one loves something, the heart is the decider of what is good and what is not good. The heart then is clean when it operates from what is lovable and desired. This is more than compliance. So, Jeremiah writes us this Sunday: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. [“those days” refers to the military defeats and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple] I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be me people.” Jeremiah promises a law that is loved. This is far beyond compliance. Clearly this applies to our present day as well. When we love the law of the New Covenant of the Cross and Resurrection, we base our actions and relationships on love of God and love of neighbor.

What a resounding response to this first reading is the verses of psalm 51. It is a song of hope, a firm purpose of amendment, and a petition for inserting the Law of Love in our hearts despite the resistance of the way of the world. “Create a clean heart in me, O God!” If we include in the equation the short quote from the Letter to the Hebrews, we’ll have beautiful preparation for the monologue of Jesus predicting his suffering and death and resurrection. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Many interpret the term “obedience” as a term of subservience. The Latin for obey carries the meaning of listening, active listening by way of the heart. [There’s that heart thing again. Much more in that meaning than compliance.] Suffering is identified as making one perfect. Perfection in Christ Jesus means that he is fully conscious of and has experienced the worst of what it can be to be human – such pain, mental, physical, and spiritual. No one can suffer more than what Christ Jesus did. And in the perfection that achieved of total connection with all humanity – individual by individual – Jesus has the experience and appreciation for pain, for growth, for failure, for challenges to his sense of personal worth and dignity. In his perfect experience of the worst Christ Jesus experiences complete fulfillment of human experience and is raised. This Letter to the Hebrews is complicated and is heavily reliant on the Temple rituals and sacrifices and communions. Scholars, in recent times, believe this Letter was written by Priscilla, the wife of Aquila, both of whom were disciples of Paul.

This short note from Hebrews is worthy of meditation. It provides us with purpose to the suffering that comes our way. Through suffering we learn. Suffering strips away the façades we paint over rotten wood and damaged structures. It gets us to basics and once again reaches into our hearts for loving what is good, what is true, what is a relationship to God and others that is without self enhancement. Sounds impossible? Suffering can have a purifying and clarifying effect.

When we come to the Gospel reading from John, it feels like we’ve jumped into the middle of something. There is something missing. We begin in pretty much the middle of chapter 12. What goes before in chapter 12 is the supper at Martha, Mary, and Lazarus house. At that supper Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive nard – a pound of that. Judas objects as he sees a missed opportunity to fatten his take from the communal purse. How unusual to anoint feet when typically, such ointment is used to anoint the head of a kind, an exalted leader. Why the feet? Jesus explains it is in preparation for his burial. We miss the statement as well the Jews have decided to not only kill Jesus but also Lazarus who was raised from the dead as a testament to Jesus’ power over death, only an attribute of divinity. Despite these testimonials the Jews were preoccupied with their power and authority. Just a note: anyone who reads literally “the Jews” as if it means all Jews is missing the point. When John writes about the Jews he means those Clerics, those power brokers, those Scribes and those Sadducees who saw Jesus as a threat their lifestyle and station in life. The literal translation of Jew to mean all persons of the Jewish Faith Tradition has been the source of two thousand years of persecution and a contrived justification for looting, rape, violence, and murder against this faith tradition. We certainly must know better and never allow ourselves to be drawn into the maelstrom of persecution.

The gospel begins with the declaration that some Greeks came to Philip – a Greek name – asking to see Jesus. Philip went to Andrew, another Greek name – and the two went to Jesus. Apparently, Jesus spoke with them, announcing his mission. “Whoever serves me must follow me….. I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? Father same me from this hour? It was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

The Father responds, many thinking it was thunder, but Jesus announces the voice was not for his sake as he was committed. It was meant for his disciples.

As we meditate on this gospel there are questions to ask ourselves. Are we more inclined to be on the self-serving side of power wealth, status quo? Are we enthusiastic about the raising of Lazarus? How do we understand Mary’s use of the expensive nard? Do we think it was a waste? How do we respond to the “Jews’” mandate to the crowd they are to report where Jesus can be found so they can arrest him? How ready are we to witness the phony trials, the torture of Jesus? Can we summon the courage to walk the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha? Do we have the stomach to see Jesus stripped and nailed to the cross, to hear the thud of the cross as it drops into the hole prepared to receive it? How do we deal with the derision of the “Jews” in their triumphalist mockery?

Perhaps this seems we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The terror of all this for those of us who appreciate Jesus and have taken his message of compassion, mercy, and loving kindness to heart will shake our hearts and rend them like cheap garments.

Dennis Keller with Charlie dkeller002@nc.rr.com

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3.
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2024-03-17 Fifth Sunday of Lent -B-

Jer 31:31-34/ 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15/ Heb 5:7-9/ Jn 12:20-33

“All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”


Did you notice WHY everyone will know the Lord?

“for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”

But we must also come to know
what this says about the heart of God..
The heart that forgives,
sets free, ... sustains, ... protects, ... heals, ...
teaches, ... is willing to discipline.

Let us not forget
that God joined us in our struggle
as the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
Loving us so much, that God took on our death, sacrificing everything for us that we might have life!

Who then is our God?
Simply and profoundly this: LOVE!

From the greatest to the least, We all know God,
for in God, Jesus Christ,
we have seen and come to know Love, know God!

This is what is written upon our hearts,
It is written in the knowledge and understanding deep with in us,

that we might Will, ...Choose ...
the same good that God wills and chooses for us: to live in Love

That we might obey Jesus,
“the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,”
as Jesus tells us elsewhere,
“I give you a new commandment,
love one another as I have loved you.”

The doorway that empowers us to truly live that “law of love”
is forgiveness - the “Divine Forgetfulness” -
and is most clearly experienced as we express
our knowledge of the one who is Love itself.....
.... in our forgiveness of one another.

Therefore:
“All, from least to greatest,
shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing
and remember their sin no more.”

John Boll OP

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4.
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5.
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Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the preaching you hear. Send them to preacherexchange@att.net.  Deadline is Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.


-- Fr. John Boll, OP



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